The New Orleans club has probably had its greatest fun playing what I call "designer" scenarios...randomly generated orders of battle, with all people having orders to simply take as much ground as possible. These tend to be all—day affairs and, since the mortality of the troops is fictitious, we tend to let regiments and brigades get decimated, all in the name of "Glory".
It doesn't matter what rules set you use or how many people participate. This article gives you the parameters to decide on the forces and gives the objectives of the battle. EVERYTHING else is up to the players.
To determine your orders of battle you must first decide how many units each person wants to handle. If playing OTR, these units will be brigades. If playing any of the other major rules sets, units will be regiments. If there is only going to be one person per side, I advise that each person field a lot of troops. If there are as many as 6 players per side, each should control a smaller number of troops. You begin developing your order of battle by rolling for the size of each brigade present. If using a regimental level rules set, brigades must be broken down to regiments, with each brigade being divided into no less than 3 regiments, and no more than 7 regiments. If using JR or SNB3, the minimum size of a regiment would be 200 men, with the maximum being 600 men. Roll a six sided die (D6) and use the following table for each brigade, using the correct column for your rules set:
| Die Roll | Brigade Size (JR, SNB3) | Brigade Size (RRTF) | Brigade Size (OTR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1200 | 1200 | 1200 |
| 2 | 1400 | 1200 | 1500 |
| 3 | 1600 | 1600 | 1800 |
| 4 | 1800 | 1600 | 1800 |
| 5 | 2000 | 2000 | 2100 |
| 6 | 2200 | 2400 | 2400 |
If you wish to throw a cavalry brigade or so into the fight, I suggest that you roll a D6, with a 4,5 or 6 allowing for the brigade. Roll for strength as with infantry. Next, you must determine the quality of each general's casting. Since RRTF rules do not have ratings for generals, such are not included in the table.
| Die Roll | JOHNNY REB | STARS 'N BARS 3rd | ON TO RICHMOND |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | Poor | Poltroon |
| 2 | +1 | Mediocre | Cautious |
| 3 | +1 | Good | Aggressive |
| 4 | +1 | Good | Aggressive |
| 5 | +2 | Excellent | Firebrand |
| 6 | +2 | Superior | Exceptional |
The final part of putting your OB together is to determine what your artillery will consist of. Each brigade will have the chance of having between 4 and 6 guns. Roll a D6 for each brigade, a 1—3 being a 4 gun battery, while a 4—6 will be a 6 gun battery. For the sake of simplicity, we will only have two types of rifled guns and two kinds of smoothbores, leaving out fancier types and howitzers. To determine composition of the ENTIRE battery, roll a D6 and consult the table:
| Die Roll | Gun Type |
|---|---|
| 1 | 6 pdr. Smoothbores |
| 2 | 3" Ordnance Rifles |
| 3 | 3" Ordnance Rifles |
| 4 | 10 pdr. Parrott Rifles |
| 5 | 12 pdr. Napoleons |
| 6 | 12 pdr. Napoleons |
The Actual Scenario
It would be unfair to call this a scenario. Being that both the troops and the terrain will be determined in a random fashion, the "scenario" can be played over and over, with very little chance that it will become repetitive. Terrain can be rolled for as per the article in this issue of THE ZOUAVE, or can be determined in whatever way your group wishes. After setting the terrain up, the fun begins.
The scenario begins at 6:00 a.m. with both sides entering the table on the first turn. HOWEVER, instead of placing troops on the table, put counters down to represent the actual units. You may place a "dummy" counter (one that does not actually represent troops) for each two real counters that are used. You can either assume that it is still dark, or that there is a fog covering the land.
In either event, visibility at this point will be no more than 5 inches. This leaves both sides in a sort of guessing game. Which counters represent real units? Using counters for the first two or three turns simulates a genuine fog of war. Perhaps scouts are coming in giving the positions of sounds they hear.
After about an hour (a few turns depending on the rules set being used) the front line troops should be placed on the table, leaving anything that would be outside of the line of sight as counters. Now comes the action!
The orders for both sides are to clear the field at all costs. Divide the table into sections, one foot by one foot is just fine. The player or team that is in possession of the greatest number of these sections will be the winner, regardless of the number of casualties received. Such a fight will likely take all day.
Obviously, there will be terrain features that are worth owning, such as hills that dominate various parts of the field or woods that allow one to make a stand against greater numbers. These are bound to be areas that are hotly contested. The greater the variance in terrain pieces, the more interesting the battle that will ensue. We've had an engagement where there was a stream going across the length of the table. It might as well have been Antietam Creek, because it was sheer death for both sides as they attempted to charge across the stream. In another battle, there were woods going across the table, leaving visibility as almost nothing until the counters were so close together that planning was out of the question. These engagements tended to be hot firefights, with each commander so occupied with surviving that coordinated attacks were a moot point. One thing that needs to be addressed for maximum entertainment is the concept of communication between players.
Each side is allowed up to ten minutes as a planning session BEFORE any units are placed on the table. Once counters have entered the battlefield, players MUST NOT talk back and forth without sending messages per the rules set you are using.
By choosing a nonhistorical scenario such as this, one isn't confined to what history dictates. Your brigade(s) can be whatever you wish to name them. Glory is obtained, even in defeat, if you have more than held your own. How much greater the valor if your troops were the ones that turned the tide!
Back to The Zouave Vol III No. 2 Table of Contents
Back to The Zouave List of Issues
Back to Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1989 The American Civil War Society
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com